Repo Men, Artiforgs And Health Care

The new movie Repo Men takes its title and theme from the earlier 1984 cult movie Repo Man, takes artiforgs from Philip K. Dick (1968), takes its glitzy scenery from the 1982 movie Blade Runner and takes its ending from Star Trek (I'll put the full spoiler in the comments below). So what is this movie about?

The basic premise for the movie is that, when you're sitting in the doctor's office and being told that you will die if you don't mortgage your family's future to purchase the latest health care (the aforementioned artiforgs), you sign. Everybody signs.

Eventually, lots of people can't pay and they wind up on the run from Repo Men, scavenging on the edges of society.

This movie has kind of a flat middle, and I found myself wondering how many people there are in America who are on the run from hospital corporations or other creditors because they signed on the dotted line rather than die. That's why I think that the real theme of this movie is a rumination on the American health care system.

By the way, if the MPAA rated movies for "unexpectedly gruesome and unwanted bloody violence", Repo Men could never have gotten an "R" rating. Don't get me wrong, I loved Blade II for example, but I almost walked out on this one.

So, I don't ordinarily do movie reviews, but I wanted to make sure that everyone who hadn't been reading up on their science fiction knew where everything in this movie is coming from. If you want to talk more about it, meet me in the comment section.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/19/2010)